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Are YOU guilty of phubbing? Regularly turning down your partner to look at your phone could cost you your marriage, study warns
- Phubbing refers to a person interacting with their phone instead of a human being
- Study finds couples who regularly phub have low marital satisfaction
For some people, a moment without your phone in your hand can seem like a lifetime.
Now a study has warned that our obsession with our phones can negatively impact our relationships.
Scientists at Nigde Omer Halisdemir University wanted to study the effects of “phubbing” – snapping at others for your phone – on married couples.
Worryingly, they found that couples who regularly phub each other are less satisfied with their marriages.
“When individuals notice that their romantic partners are phubbing more often, they feel more conflict and less intimacy in the relationship,” the team explains in their study.
Scientists at Nigde Omer Halisdemir University wanted to study the effects of “phubbing” – snapping at others for your phone – on married couples. Worryingly, they found that couples who regularly phub each other have lower marital satisfaction (stock image)
Phubbing is a process where a person gets distracted by their phone while talking to others.
“Phubbing behavior, to which we can be subjected (phubbee) or the doer of (phubber), manifests itself as a behavior commonly observed throughout today’s technologically advanced societies,” the team wrote in their study, published in Computers in human behavior.
In their study, the researchers wanted to study the effect of this behavior on married couples.
They recruited 712 married people from Turkey (347 women and 365 men), with an average age of 37 years.
These participants were surveyed about their marital satisfaction, phubbing tendencies, and communication skills.
The results will come as bad news for those who can’t put their phones down — phubbing was a key predictor of martial discontent.
Izzet Parmaksız, lead author of the study, said: ‘Our research demonstrates the power of effective communication, especially among romantic couples.
“Marital conflict occurs especially when people are ignored by those they value, and this ignorance leads to lower relationship satisfaction and can impact personal well-being.
“People should make sure they are with their loved ones to show they care, and put their phones away.”
The study comes shortly after a study found that phubbers are more likely to have certain mental health problems.
Researchers at the University of Oklahoma University found that depressed people were more likely to “phub” their friends — either in a social setting such as a pub or cafe — than people without depression.
Socially anxious people who may prefer online social interactions to face-to-face communication also display more phubbing behaviors, the authors say.